Cranes boost terminal capacity

The Tanger Alliance at the TC3 terminal in Tanger Med is now operating at full capacity thanks to the eight new Liebherr ship to shore container cranes which are servicing the world’s largest container vessels at its 800m deep-water quay.

“The handover of these cranes to Tanger Alliance is a key moment for the port,” said Gerry Bunyan, Global Sales and Marketing Manager for Liebherr Container Cranes.

Tanger Alliance’s investment in Liebherr STS cranes will be rewarded with industry leading productivity, low operational costs and the knowledge that the cranes will be available as required, to work on the world’s largest vessels for many years to come.”

Increased productivity

The cranes, which are the first Liebherr STS at Tanger Med, were erected at a remote site in Cadiz, Spain before being shipped two at a time to Morocco.

The first cranes were commissioned in October 2020, with four more following in quick succession, allowing the terminal to open for business in January 2021 with six STS cranes.

These cranes have an outreach of 72m, a lift height over rail of 54m, a span of 30.48 and a backreach of 22m.

Key to their selection is that they are future-proofed as they can cater for vessels with up to 26 rows stowed across the deck and include fibre optic cores in the cabling, fault monitoring and remote diagnostics.

Safety features including laser and ultrasonic anti-collision systems as well as smart slowdowns, which are installed as standard.

These cranes bring the total number Liebherr has supplied to Morocco to twelve, with four cranes already in operation in Casablanca.